Music Theory, Guitar and Ear Training

Explore chord theory to build an intuitive ability to play guitar, examining major, minor, dominant, augmented, and diminished chords and their emotional contexts, plus common progressions.

Discover how the G major chord forms from the G major scale—root, third, and fifth (G, B, D)—and how adding F sharp yields G major seven.

Build triads from the G major scale, revealing major on one, four, five; minor on two, three, six; half diminished on seven, with emphasis on the five chord's dominant seventh.

Explore how major, minor, dominant, and diminished chords color music to convey varied emotions. Learn to craft emotional landscapes in songs using guitar and chord theory.

Explore major and minor chords in the key of G major, noting G major and C major produce a cheerful sound, while minor chords feel darker.

Explore how minor chords in a G major context—b minor and a minor—sound melancholic and dark, and how two, three, and six chords in major keys are minor, shaping mood.

Explore diminished and fully diminished chords, explain why they don’t naturally occur in a major scale, and show how they convey mystery, suspense, and cinematic mood in movie soundtracks.

Examine the half-diminished chord in G major, built on F-sharp as the seventh degree, with downloadable chord diagrams illustrating the key's tension.

Explore augmented chords' mysterious, tense yet expressive quality and their rare but powerful use in popular music and film soundtracks, before introducing dominant chords.

Explore the dominant chord, a cornerstone in music theory that creates forward motion. It contains a tense interval and resolves naturally to one place, with the next lesson explaining why.

Explore how a dominant chord creates a tense sound that resolves to the one chord. Illustrate how C7 resolves to F major, highlighting the tritone and five-to-one cadence.

Explore guitar chord inversions with the G major triad (G, B, D) playable in any order. See how root, first, and second inversions change grounding and emotional color across instruments.

Explore inversions of the C major chord and C major seven, noting duplicated notes, with first inversion (E in bass), second inversion (G), and third inversion (seventh in bass).

Explore chord theory with major, minor, diminished and augmented chords, inversions, and building seventh chords; learn the common 1-5-6-4 progression in multiple keys, hear it in songs, and analyze patterns.

Explore rootless chords and upper structures, including removing the root from a C major and stacking tones to form upper triads. These ideas are curiosities, not essential for beginners.

Apply chord theory to craft uplifting, emotionally driven songs by using major, minor, and dominant chords and secondary dominants to create compelling resolutions and transitions.

Explore harmony by building triads and seven chords from major scale, noting major on 1,4,5; minor on 2,3,6; diminished on 7; and practice inversions in keys to develop intuitive ear.

Explore melody theory and its role in intuitive playing and improvisation. Learn scales, standard fingerings for common guitar scales, and the sharps and flats terms that shape melody.

Discover how major scales form from whole and half steps within the chromatic 12-note set, with G major and C major, and how sharps and flats arise.

Explore sharp and flat notes that raise or lower pitches, with examples in G major and C major, and note that G sharp and A flat share a pitch.

Explore harmonic equivalents, aka enharmonic equivalents, where different note names refer to the same pitch, such as C sharp and D flat, and learn why flats or sharps are chosen.

Learn the major scale on guitar in G major with fretboard demonstrations, one octave and two octave patterns, and why we use F sharp instead of E double sharp.

Learn the natural minor scale on guitar, including five-fret fingering, two octaves, and note spellings (G, B flat, E flat). Explore tabs, recordings, and guidance on alternate picking.

Master the G minor pentatonic scale pattern for beginners, using the five natural minor notes (G, B flat, C, D, F) with no hand shifts and alternate picking for improvisation.

Learn when to use major, natural minor, and minor pentatonic scales for improvisation over chord progressions, linking scale choice to the key and 12-bar blues in G.

Explore melody theory foundations and practice major, natural minor, and minor pentatonic scales with guitar tabs, using a metronome from 60 to 120 bpm across the fretboard in G.

Build on core theory and melody theory to explore guitar embellishments such as pull offs, bends, and slides. Learn when, how, and why to practice them for authentic style.

Master hammer-ons and pull-offs on the guitar, where the fretting hand sounds the second note without re-picking. Develop dexterity and precision to hear the technique clearly, even without amps.

Practice the g minor pentatonic scale with hammer ons and pull offs to build timing, technique, and rhythm using a metronome at 60 bpm.

Develop authentic guitar phrasing by mastering fretboard slides that stay in time with the rhythm and avoid overshooting the target. Practice with index, middle, and ring fingers to improve precision.

Practice sliding within the minor pentatonic scale to develop clean slides and rhythm, using hammer ons and pull offs as reference, with a metronome at 60 bpm and tempo progression.

Develop guitar bending control by practicing half-step and whole-step bends. Strengthen finger technique, using the ring finger to support bends, and train your ear to avoid overshoot.

Learn to use hammer-ons and pull-offs creatively to add rhythmic intricacy and fluid grooving rhythms, enabling fast passages with the fretting hand and producing a more swinging, textured guitar tone.

Explore fretboard slides and their down-home, authentic rustic sound typical of traditional acoustic blues and Delta blues. They offer authentic sounding and technical advantages reaching notes, including hammer-ons or pull-offs.

Explore string bending and its bluesy, fluid pitch glide that smooths melodies within minor pentatonic shapes. Learn when to bend, avoid overuse, and how bends fit scale patterns.

Practice Cameron's pull-offs, bends, slides, and hammer-ons with a metronome to build rhythmic accuracy, tone, and technique; use the minor pentatonic scale as a sandbox to refine these embellishments.

Explore the 12 bar blues and its variations as a guitar practice sandbox, using scales, lead, accompaniment, rhythm chords, and bar chords; with a garage band project and audio resources.

Explore how the twelve-bar blues serves as a versatile framework for practice, improvisation, and ear training across genres from rock to pop, not just for blues players.

Use the twelve-bar blues as a sandbox to practice improvising and transposing the one, four, and five chords from G to any key, with jam tracks and GarageBand support.

Explain the quick to the four blues variation in the key of G, where the four chord (C) replaces some one-chord bar sections to break monotony.

Learn how to turn the twelve-bar blues into a 16-bar form with three variations, elongating sections to fit lyrics and allow riffs, while reinforcing the core blues structure.

Master the 8-bar blues as a simplified form of the 12-bar blues with 1–4–5 progressions in G. Think in numerals to navigate these blues variations.

Learn to play the 12, 8, and 16 bar blues in any key using bar chords, with diagrams and fretboard navigation centered on the one, four, and five chords.

Master the 12-bar blues and 8/16-bar variations built on 1–4–5 chords, using numerals to navigate changes and practice scales, riffs, and solos with tempo and key adjustments in GarageBand projects.